The Red Mill
by Chenanceou
Summary: Crossover: BtVS/Moulin Rouge. It's all about Spike and the Belle Époque.


Title: The Red Mill (S. Salvation's Challenge)  
  
By: Chen  
  
Disclaimer: All things Buffy belong to Joss and ME (Grr! Argh!) and not to me. Snif.  
  
Rating: PG?  
  
A/N: Crossover – BtVS/ Moulin Rouge. This takes place in the Paris of 1899. William the Bloody  and the Belle Époque  
  
*  
  
He felt at home in this place. The Moulin Rouge – the red mill… What a prosaic name for the most extraordinary of places. The decorations by Willette conjuring a world of colors and sensations. A place where the rich bourgeoisie rubbed shoulders with the drunks and the noctambules. Ah… Some of those whores were delicious… One for every taste… One for every depravation in the book. Those top hats paid dearly for the delusion of being part of the demimonde. He was more a creature of this world than any of these ambulant meals would ever be. What did they understand of decadence and corruption other than what they could afford for a night? He loved this place not because of the lords, but for the scum that inhabited it. He had to concede that the well fed gentlemen did make for a lovely supper.  
  
With a contented sigh Spike looked around taking the scenery in. Alone and free. For the night at least. Being unencumbered by the women was a relief. One night stolen every now and then made him forget he was thought of as a poor substitute for Angelus. He took a table near Toulouse's usual corner, where the painter was holding court as the diminute king of the bohemians. He had his usual starvinglings from the Butte surrounding him. The vampire didn't miss the new addition to the group, freshly from out of town. The poor bastard would loose that glimmer of hope from his eyes soon enough. This was Montmartre after all. The home of lost souls.  
  
The waiter approached him asking him if he'll have the usual. Yes, he most certainly will. He just knows he'll miss Paris. The waiter places his order on the table and leaves him alone to perform his ritual.  
  
Absinthe. The name in itself transported you to magic realms populated by la Fée Verte and brilliant people. It was a ritual of courtship, full of anticipation. The glass being filled carefully to the etched mark. The placing of the spoon, its elaborate cut-outs bearing the crystallized remains of a previous rendezvous with dreams. One sugar cube balanced carefully and the slow and precise pouring of the water over it… Watching the cube absorb it and slowly dissolve and drip into the awaiting liquid inside. The fascination of the louche… as the green emerald changed colors with each drop of water… Toulouse had his own concoction baptized as atremblement de terre… And a magnificent earthquake it was, the cognac cutting the bitter taste of the absinthe and making it run smoothly down the throat. Other than the dwarf, La Goulue was the only one who could drink the stuff without falling to the ground.  
  
The waiter never bothered to ask if he would have another. Spike needed more than the usual three glasses before the green fairy came to him.  
  
He watched the faces go by with no interest until something caught his eyes. It's Toulouse's new boy who can't take his eyes of the redhead. He recognizes that look of total adoration. The light in those eyes is unmistakable. The whelp is a poet. A poet in love. He can tell, he can always tell.  
  
Poets. Such a sorry lot. Searching for that perfect love that had no chance of surviving in this sodding world. All things should and would die. Why sacrifice an entire existence to something doomed from the start? Why give the power to obliterate your most important possession to a stranger who comes into your life some very ordinary day?  
  
She is beautiful, anyone can see that. But can the poet sense the stench of death that surrounds his courtesan? No, he can't. Fool. He'll probably end up as one of the tortured souls that haunt the alleys of Montmartre… All of them with that desperate look of lost possibilities and missed opportunities in their bloodshot eyes.  
  
Poet's heart is meant to love. Love is pain. Love is the torture of the promise of infinite happiness if… yes, if the object of your affection chose to love you in return. But there was the bitter after tastes of love. Betrayal. Loss.  
  
Forever and ever. Hollow words. There is no forever. Not even for creatures like him. He will live longer than any of these pathetic excuses for humanity, but even he comes with an expiration date.  
  
Poet's hearts are there to be broken so their pain will spill like blood on cheap pages for other's entertainment. Poet's hearts were meant to be shattered so the pieces can shine like diamonds in somebody else's eyes.  
  
Fool. The girl was as good as dead. G'd how he envied him.  
  
The end 


End file.
